In the last week or so, I’ve acquired two new toys, both gifts.
The first is a Vibroplex Original semi-automatic key, or “bug,” so if my fist has a decided “swing” to it, you’ll know why. The bug was a gift from a blog reader who wrote, “I noticed on your blog that you are a CW fan. I have a beautiful Vibroplex keyer (sic) with case that was given to me by the family of my very best friend after his passing over 25 years ago. I never used it and would like to pass it on. This keyer was a special piece of equipment that I wanted to give to someone that is helping hams as you are with your blog.”
How generous is that?
From the serial number, I’ve been able to determine that it was made in the late 1940s, and since it’s been in the carrying case for a long time, it’s in great shape. Using WB8SIW’s wonderful YouTube video on how to adjust and use a bug, I was able to set it up so that even I can send copyable code with it. I can tell already that I’m going to have a lot of fun with this key.
A hot tip
The second toy was a gift from a company with a bit of an ulterior motive. Two weeks ago, I got this e-mail:
My name is Sara Ninneman and I’m with a company called Iso-Tip. We manufacture cordless rechargeable soldering irons. I stumbled upon your blog and just wanted to say thank you for the great content, and for teaching humans about electronics! We would like to send you one of our cordless soldering irons, the Quick Charge #7700.
I replied, “I’ll do you one better. If you send me that soldering iron, I’ll review it on my blog.” I suspected that’s what they were shooting for, as I’d seen it used on HamNation a couple of weeks ago.
Sara again replied:
I like that better! :-) That would truly be great if you did a review. Of course we hope for the review, but I understand that you are just as busy as I am and only have so much time in your day.
We are actually trying to enter the Ham marketplace, so I’m glad you heard of Iso-Tip on Ham Nation last week. We hope to do more work with them in the near future. I will get a soldering iron out to you today, and please let me know if you have any questions/concerns/feedback.
To be honest, I had some trouble with the soldering iron—partly their fault, partly operator error. As you can see from the picture, to charge the soldering iron, you place it into the charging unit. Two pins in the bottom of the unit make contact with two pins in the iron.
The problem I had was that the iron didn’t seem to be charging. When I contacted them about this, they informed me that they’d had some problems with some of the charging units, and while they thought they’d recalled all of them, that perhaps I’d gotten a bad one. The bad ones have a tab between the two pins in the charging unit that prevents the iron from seating far enough down.
A quick visual inspection confirmed that my charging unit had that tab. My Dremel tool quickly took care of that problem, and now it charges just fine. The iron is still kind of loose when it sits in the charging unit, though. I wish that there was a more positive contact between the pins in the charging unit and the soldering iron, but it all seems to work OK.
In action, the iron works well. I used it to solder a couple of components to a kit I’m working on. Because the tip only gets hot when you push a button, it takes a while for the tip to heat up enough to make a solder joint, but it does a nice job after a couple of seconds. That lag time is probably why I won’t be using this soldering iron for everyday work, but I can see taking it to Field Day or using it in other portable applications.
Dave, N8SBE says
I had a Blue Racer way back in my Novice days, and eventually re-sold it at another swap, because it was too fast for me code speed then. I tried to slow it down by hanging extra weight on the arm, but it ended up sounded even worse, so I gave up on it. For a while, I had an Allied bug, which at least could be slowed down to about 13 WPM or maybe even lower, but in general, I stuck with a hand key until I ended building a keyer that used 7400 TTL (and had a nasty race condition such that it sometimes sent short dashes) that was featured in the ARRL handbook in those days. Someone was selling PCB’s (Far Circuits?), and I have a junkbox of parts, so it ended up in my Heath SB-104, which didn’t have a keyer circuit. I used an FYO paddle with it, and kept that paddle for many years, until recently, when I upgraded to a Kent paddle.
Funny, in all the CW contests I work these days, I hardly touch the paddle any more. Everything is done by computer within the N1MM (now N1MM+) contest logging program.
As for a portable soldering iron, I have had a Weller butane iron for many years. Doesn’t need a socket at all, but you do have to fill it with butane from one of those lighter refills canisters.
73,
— Dave, N8SBE